Most commonly known as the Greek stringed instrument resembling a small harp, the musical instrument the lyre shape has been adapted to a unique accessory designed to hold music while being fixed to your instrument. Musicians on the move often need an effective way to display music during setting where utilizing a music stand would be impossible, such on the marching band field or in stadium bleachers. The lyre accessory easily accomplishes this by attaching to a place on the instrument and using a spring loaded clip to hold your music. While holding a single small sheet of music is possible for the lyre, showing more than a single page would be difficult without opening/closing the clip to move the music around. So the advent of the ‘flip-folder’ became a common way to hold and show multiple music pages while remaining attached to the instrument.

Each instrument family has a unique way of attaching the lyre, and many instrument manufacturers have even gone as far as to build in lyre holders as part of the manufacturing process to easily adapt for holding a lyre. Flute players have a unique challenge since there’s no way to physically attach a lyre to a flute, so the flute lyre actually straps around the left forearm of the player to allow music to be easily visible while moving or standing. For clarinets, trumpets, trombones, saxophone and other brass instrument, there are lyre sockets on the instrument and an appropriately shaped lyre to fit into that specific spot and angle. A must-have for many schools that are performing in places where music stands aren’t possible, the lyre is also commonly found used by other types of performing groups such as ‘German Bands’ and groups with unique performing locations.